Noggle sells Signature Investment Services

Noggle sold Gail Noggle Signature Investment Services May 16 to Michael Richardson of Joplin-based Richardson Financial Services Inc.

Noggle, an investment adviser representative, assisted clients with financial planning, life and health insurance, employee benefit programs, mutual funds, stocks, bonds and annuities.

Her office was inside The Signature Bank at 2620 E. Sunshine.

Noggle said that she wasn’t seeking a seller.

“I was presented with an opportunity to sell my business to a financial adviser within ING Financial Partners, which is my broker-dealer,” Noggle said. “That offers a totally seamless transition (for clients).”

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, gives Richardson a book of business of about 250 clients.

Because she and Richardson worked with the same broker-dealer, clients’ accounts were electronically transferred on the closing date. A letter was sent to Noggle’s clients in May, letting them know of the change.

Richardson, who has been in the investment business for 25 years, plans to retain his Joplin office, but will travel to take care of clients in the Springfield area.

“We’ve worked together over about six years, so I was familiar with her business and was looking to expand mine,” Richardson said, adding that the additional clients provide his business with “significant expansion.”

The Signature Bank

Noggle, who was not an employee of The Signature Bank, began leasing space in the bank’s East Sunshine branch in April 2003.

“I considered myself part of the team and was always treated as such,” she said.

The sale will leave The Signature Bank without a financial services office, but whether that void is permanent is yet to be seen.

The Signature Bank Chairman and CEO David Kunze said, “We’re reviewing our strategy in that area to see if we want to go forward and offer that service in the future. We have not made that decision yet.”

Noggle will remain in the office through mid-June. She said that she has not yet made a decision about her next career move, but would like to find a way to utilize her experience in marketing, finance and community development.

“I would love to find something that blended all three and allowed me to bring some value to an organization. What exactly that might be, I’m not sure,” she said.